BOSTON
PUBLIC
LIBRARY
Report of the Boston Landmarks Commission
on the potential designation of
BROOK FARM
as a Landmark under Chapter 772 of the Acts of 1975
Approved by:
. ^/v.- ^£- .''^77
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Approved b
E>f-e€jjtive Diractor Date
Chairman 1 ' Daie 7T j
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1.0 LOCATION OF THE PROPERTY
1.1 Address: 670 Baker Street, West Roxbury, Ward 20. Assessor's
Parcel numbers are 8964, 8965 and 8966.
1.2 Area in which the property is located: Brook Farm provides the
name for its region of West Roxbury, the southwest-most part of
Boston; it is the location of several cemeteries, a large landfill
project, and a new high school. Nearby is the Veterans of Foreign
Wars Parkway, a part of Route 1 built in the 1930's; the parkway is
a busy route to southern suburbs, such as Dedham. The farm itself
abuts the City of Newton.
Annexed to Boston in 1874, West Roxbury is a suburban-type community,
consisting mostly of single- and two-family homes.
1.3 Map showing location: attached
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WEST ROXBURY
1000 2000
4000
Brook Farm mimiiu
FEET
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DEDHAM
SAWMILL MARSH STUDY
Base Map
BOSTON CONSERVATION COMMISSION
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2.0 DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPERTY
2.1 Type and Use:
Of the original Brook Farm, 50 acres are now used as Gethsemane
Cemetery, established by the Association of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church for Works of Mercy. The Association also owns approximately
95 acres formerly used as an orphange. These 95 acres are now
vacant.
2.2 Physical Description:
This description of the extensive grounds of Brook Farm, over 175
acres, is based principally on that contained in the Boston Conser-
vation Commission's Sawmill Marsh study, from which the maps are
taken. The maps cover the entire sawmill Marsh area; only that
section marked in the base map (following Section 1.3) is covered
in this report. Other information was obtained from the West
Roxbury Historical Society.
Surficial Geology (See Surficial Geology map)
Although there are several significant bedrock outcroppings (pro-
trusions through the soil), the three dominant geological features
of Brook Farm are:
1. the wetlands, which include the following types (as defined by
the U.S. Department of the Interior):
Seasonally Emergent Flats: A flood plain where annual flooding
covers the land within 12 inches or more of water. Grass and
sedge-type vegetation dominate, with cattails and purple
loosestrife common in the water area. Some shrubs and trees
are also present. Robust Shallow Marsh: dominated by emergent
cattails and duckweed, with purple loosestrife also abundant.
Water depth is less than six inches, and may be exposed during
the growing season.
Shrub swamps: Where the ground is covered with as much as 12
inches of water, and shrubs are the dominant plant form. The
sapling shrub swamps are cominated by young trees less than 20
feet tall-species include red maple, hornbeam, speckled alder,
and willow. Bushy shrub swamps are dominated by such shrubs
as high bush blueberry, alder, and viburnum.
Wooded swamps: dominated by trees and flooded annually by as
much as 12 inches of water. Species here are deciduous, such
as red maple, silver maple, red ash, American elm, and yellow
birch. Location of these types are on the attached wetlands
map.
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Sawmill Marsh Study
Surficial Geology
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KEY
Robust Shallow Harsh
Emergent Flats
Sapling Shrub Swamp
Bushy Shruk Swamp
Wooded Swamp
Sawmill Marsh Study ^
Wetlands
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400
2. Uplands: This dry upland is elevated above the wetlands,
surmounted by an elevation of 55 feet above surrounding land
at the cemetery.
3. Sawmill Brook (or Brook Farm Brook), which has been partially
channelized to circumvent the adjacent City of Boston sanitary
landfill.
The rock outcroppings are of Roxbury puddingstone, more correctly
called Roxbury conglomerate, a formation of glacially rounded
debris cemented by finer material.
Physical Improvements (see Cultural Features map)
The numbers with each improvement are coded to the map.
1. Site of the Hive - the original farmhouse was located here.
A replica of that house, built on the same foundations, burned
in 1977.
2. Print Shop Building
The Print Shop is a wood frame, two storey, rectangular plan
structure covered by a ridged roof. The side set entry is on
the east gable end; the opposite gable end has a one storey
shed whose roof abuts the end wall at the level of the second
storey window sills. The structure is 3 bays by 6 bays,
although the north wall has only 5 windows reflecting interior
spatial divisions. The windows are filled with two over two
pane rectangular sash with plain frames. The simple entryway
is covered by a pedimented hood without any additional moulding.
The walls are sheathed in imitation clapboard of a light
color, and the roof is covered with asbestos shingle.
3. The Dell - dominated by pines: a former site of religious
services.
4. Two granite gateposts remain from former dairy farming activities
dating from the 17th century.
5. Foundations remain of a barn built by the Brook Farmers; the
barn burned in the I920's.
6. Timbers visible in the meadow near the Margaret Fuller cottage
are remnants of another barn that burned. Nearby is the site
of the Pilgrim House, built by the Morton brothers of Plymouth
in 1843 and later used for dormitories.
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Sanitary
Landfill
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Sawmill Marsh Study ^
Cultural Features --
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7. Margaret Fuller Cottage:
The Margaret Fuller Cottage is a considerably remodeled cruciform
plan, one and a half storey structure with an intersecting
gable roof. Windows are centrally placed in each of the major
elevations and in the gable ends on the upper storey. The
legs of the plan differ in size somewhat, and are partially
sheathed with clapboards or, especially in the gables, are
covered with plywood sheets with applied wood strips in a
rectilinear pattern. The roof is covered with asphalt shingles.
The entrance is located in the east leg where it abuts the
other leg.
9. A cannon from the U.S.S. Constituion was placed at Brook Farm
in memory of Civil War Camp Andrew. Originally near the main
house, the cannon now is on the cemetery grounds.
10. A munitions storage vault serving Camp Andrew is located in a
steep hill adjacent to the cemetery road.
11. Stone foundations of a milk storage structure are located in
the bank above Sawmill Brook, where it enters the site.
12. Gethsemane Cemetery, founded concurrently with the orphanage
in 1872, is a cemetery on the heights of the property. Elevated
approximately 55 feet above the surrounding propety, the
cemetery's highest point is surmounted by an obelisk marking
the grave of Gottlieb F. Burkhardt, donor of the property.
Other graves are located nearly, with areas being cleared for
new graves and filling operations taking place in the adjoining
marshlands. The administration building, dating from the
1950's, is located near the Baker Street entrance (13).
14. Site of the Eyrie, the main school and first building erected
by the Brook farmers. This was built at the highest point of
the immediate area (approximately 55 feet above the marshland)
on a Roxbury puddingstone foundation.
15. Site of the Phalanstery, which burned in 1846 just short of
completion.
2.3 PHYSICAL HISTORY
Use of the property began in early colonial times, mainly as pasturage
for dairy herds; the sandy and rocky soil was unsuitable for crops.
The Brook Farmers bought their farm in 1841, including "a dwelling
house (the hive), barn, and other buildings thereon". (Norfolk Co.
Register of Deeds, Liber 133, Folio 57). The property then consisted
of two parcels totalling 192 acres - accurate boundaries are difficult
to pinpoint because of a lack of maps and style of defining boundaries,
with reference to other property owners.
The first survey of the property in 1900 revealed a plot of 179
acres. Road construction and widening further reduced the size of
the land to its present 175 acres.
The large Gardner Street landfill abutting Brook Farm has affected
the layout of the wetlands and the brook. Rechanneled around the
fill, the brook's marsh has markedly changed since 1900 (cf.
attached map. Conservation p. 26)
2.4 Photographs - attached.
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1900
Figure 6. The two maps ehoj the changing topography within the
Twentieth Century. The mope are based on U.S.G.S.
Quadrangle Maps of 1902 (Survey in 1899) and 1970.
BROOK FARM
Sawmill Brook
photo June 1977 R.E. Stanton
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3.0 SIGNIFICANCE
3.1 Historic Associations
The historic significance of Brook Farm rests in three areas:
Principally, as the most intellectual of the Utopian communities
that appeared and disappeared in America in the early 19th century;
as a military training ground for a famous Civil War regiment; and
also as a site for over a century a home for children operated by a
religious community.
Brook Farm, unlike other such Utopias, had its grounding in mainstream
American religious philosophy. The movement toward separate,
idealized communities is traceable as far back as the monasteries
of Europe. Little tolerance existed even for non-Catholic in
countries that had established churches, as such groups as Puritans
and Anabaptists discovered in England. The Pilgrims of Plymouth,
in establishing their theocracy, founded a Utopia of sorts for
themselves in the 17th century. Similarly, Mennonites from Germany
founded an early "Plockhoy's Commonwealth" along the Delaware
River.
Many of the Utopian communities founded in the early 1800's were
the result of such persecution in Europe; the concept of religious
liberty in the new United States was truly revolutionary to a
Europe of anathema and excommunication. Fleeing the individual
problems of Europe, these leaders came to America to set up their
own model societies. Over 100 communities, with a total membership
of more than 100,000 men, women and children, were tried out in the
19th century to provide examples that the world would follow.
(Holloway, pp. 17-19). Only one such society has survived, the
Mormons, a native American group who to avoid persecution in the
not entirely tolerant United States had to both disavow belief in
polygamy and establish their own secular government in Utah wilderness.
(Hinds, p. ii)
Brook Farm by contrast, was grounded in Unitarianism, a religion
that had been developing popularity in New England: many of the
first Puritan churches had become Unitarian in the early 19th
century (e.g., the First and Second Churches in Boston). Liberal
for its time, the church was not liberal enough for one of its
ministers, George Ripley. He joined William E. Channing's Trans-
cendental Club (ultimately resigning his ministry in 1841). "In
its New England form Ralph Waldo Emerson extended beliefs of that
church (Unitarianism) until they could find a place for the nascent
evolutionist science of the day, and the newly explored mysticism
of the East. Transcendentalism was thus a humanist religion, 'with
an unswerving witness in the soul', open to evolutionists, monists,
and pragmatists, as well as to anyone who believed 'an order of
truth that transcends the sphere of the external senses.'" (Holloway,
p. 128)
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Man had, in the view of the Transcendentalists, an intuitive
ability to discern spiritual truths; this view contrasted sharply
with the prevailing religious view of the time, that spiritual
knowledge came only from special grace because of man's inner
depravity. (Codman, p. 4) Transcendentalism was "the faith of the
American Romantic Revival in literature — of Emerson, Thoreau, and
Hawthorne — and it inspired the humanitariansim of Bronson Allcott,
Theodore Parker, Margaret Fuller, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, and
many others". (Holloway, op. cit.)
Like the other philosphies that produced separate communities.
Transcendentalism did not advocate waiting until eternity for an
ideal society. It "summed up the lesson and meaning of all good
doctrines, that man should lead a better life here, where the
duties to our fellows should not be passed by as now, but fulfilled."
(Codman, p. 5) Ripley used the January 1842 edition of The Dial,
the publication of the Transcendental Club, to explain the beginnings
the year before of Brook Farm:
In order to live a religious and moral life worthy of the
name, they feel it is necessary to come out in some degree
from the world, and form themselves into a community of property,
so far as to exclude competition and the ordinary rules of
trade; — while they reserve sufficient private property, or
the means of obtaining it, for all purposes of independence,
and isolation at will. They have bought a farm, in order to
make agriculture the basis of their life, it being the most
direct and simple in relation to nature. (Fogarty, p. 63)
Brook Farm was established as a cooperative: the property owners,
who had purchased stock at $500 per share to establish the Brook
Farm Institute of Agriculture and Education, received a fixed
income from their shares. The farm was bought from Charles and
Maria Ellis on October 14, 1841. Financial success was never
sought at Brook Farm, and thus was never found. (Holloway, p. 152)
All those living on the farm were to work, receiving the same wage
without regard to the nature of their tasks. Those who were ill
were not required to work; the stockholders were penalized only
their interest if they chose not to work. "This principle (uniform
wage) with regard to labor lies at the root of moral and religious
life; for it is not more true that 'money is the root of all evil;
than that labor is the germ of all good." (Fogarty, p. 67)
Only two members of the Transcendental Club, John S. Dwight and
Nathaniel Hawthorne, would join the first 20 members of Brook Farm.
Emerson sometimes spoke favorably of the experiment, but declined
membership, calling the farm "a perpetual picnic, a French revolution
in small, an age of reason in a patty pan." (Holloway, p. 128)
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This attitude stems from Emerson's perception of typical intellectual
"awe of manual labor and the good earth." (ibid.) Hawthorne even
found himself too worn out from farm work and unable to write; he
left complaining, "I cannot endure being chambermaid to a cow."
(Boston 200, p. 5) A contemporary of Hawthorne's at Brook Farm
cited Hawthorne's shyness as the reason for his dissatisfaction: ".
. . no one could be more out of place than he in a mixed company .
. ." (Codman, p. 21)
The education cited in the cooperative's title was provided by the
school, begun at a neighbor's cottage in 1841. The boarding school's
goals was to develop the creative ability of its students, allowing
them freedom to select their own subjects without "meaningless
discipline." (Holloway, p. 131) Among students at the school were
George William and James Burrill Curtis; Isaac Hecker, who converted
to Catholicism and founded the Paulist religious order; and Francis
Barlow, Attorney General of New York and prosecutor of the Tweed
Ring.
On their arrival at the farm, Ripley's group found one major building,
a farm house which they used as their central residence. Soon it
was nicknamed "The Hive": "All the Bees were at the Hive..."
(Orvis, p. 2) At first, the Brook Farm school was located in a
rented neighbor's cottage; thereafter, the farmers built a small
square wooden building called the Eyrie on puddingstone at the
highest point of the farm. The Ripleys lived there, (WRHS), and it
contained other residences, the school, a library, and pianos
(Orvis, op.cit.) A duplex house was obtained by the Brook Farmers
and named the Pilgrim House. (Codman, p. 23) The farmers also
erected a shop building, still standing, with a steam engine in the
basement, printing and carpentry shops on the first floor, and shoe
and pewter shops on the third story. (WRHS)
After nearly two years as a transcendentalist society, Ripley's
farm was converted to a different form of Utopia, following the
philosophy of Charles Fourier (1772-1837), a French social critic.
Rather than being a place to sharpen the individual mind, a Fourierist
society was an end in itself. The Frenchman rejected 18th century
science and 19th century liberalism, the sources of many other
societies. "Civilized man was artifical, because he had purchased
his civilization at the expense of his passional attractions."
(Fogarty p. 54)
Fourier devised an elaborate social system, called a Phalanx, which
he believed would multiply until exactly 2,985,984 Phalanxes with
1,600 members apiece would exist. (Holloway, p. 138) Everything
was naturally arranged in groups and series, claimed Fourier, and
arranging society and work into such series was a proper social
development of the 12 passions that made for ideal society. At
that time society was a "sink of corruption" (quoted in Holloway,
p. 137) because of 60 malevolent characteristics.
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Following a visit by Ripley and others to a Fourierist meeting in
New York City, Brook Farm issued its first statement of support for
Fourier's theories on January 18, 1844. The farm's new publication.
The Harbinger, was a major voice in Fourierist literature; the
association formally changed its name to the Brook Farm Phalanx,
and decided to build a Phalanstery building in the Spring of 1844.
This building, on a foundation of puddingstone, was designed to be
three stories high, 175 feet long, with an attic and suites for
seven families. (WRHS) All public rooms on the farm were to be
contained here, as well as a dining room for over 300 persons
(Orvis, p. 14), reflecting the optimism of a group that at no time
had more than 120 members (with some sources, such as Holloway,
claiming never more than 70 or 80). But after two years of constant
labor and an expenditure of $7,000, the building burned to the
ground on March 3, 1846, while the Brook Farmers were attending a
play in the main house (Codman, p. 190) Another $3,000 was to be
spent to complete the Phalanstery; "The Great Catastrophe" (as
Codman titled his chapter on the fire) was a major symbolic and
financial blow from which Brook Farm never recovered. Had the fire
not precipitated the farm's dec line, it "might have shared the
ignominious fate of so many communities, petering out amid an
unseemly wrangle of dissension." (Holloway, p. 154) The school
closed also, hurt by the public's perception of the Fourierist farm
as socialist and by smallpox that struck 30 farmers (although none
died) (WRHS), and The Harbinger ceased publication.
Ripley believed himself responsible for Brook Farm's financial
ruin; he had invested much time and money in the project, and left
the farm in debt. He ultimately paid the farm's debts with revenue
from free-lance writing and a job at the New York Tribune. (Codman,
pp. 237f)
In 1849, the farm was sold for $19,500 at public auction to the
town of Roxbury, which used the land for a poor house. In 1855,
the Rev. James Freeman Clarke bought the property from the town; he
loaned it to the Commonwealth during the Civil War for use as a
training field. The Second Regiment of Massachusetts Infantry
trained here at "Camp Andrew."
Sold in 1868 to Larence and James Munroe for use as a summer boarding
house, the property was sold again in 1870 by Gottlieb F. Burkhardt,
a German immigrant who the next year formed the Association of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church for Works of Mercy. This association
was founded to provide temporary homes for orphan children, the
aged and weak, and to establish a cemetery. On October 3, 1872,
the Martin Luther Orphans Home was dedicated, and in March 1873
Gethesemane Cemetery was laid out. Except for four years in the
1940's, the Orphans Home operated for 103 years until its closing
in 1974.
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3.2 Relationship to the Criteria for Landmark Designation
Brook Farm clearly meets two criteria for designation as a Landmark
as defined in Chapter 772 of the Acts of 1975. First, it is listed
as a National Historic Landmark on the National Register of Historic
Places. Second, it is the site with one of the most famous social
experiments in 19th century America, and was a major training
ground for Civil War militia, thus significant to the social and
military history of the City of Boston, the New England region, the
Commonwealth, and the nation.
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4.0 ECONOMIC STATUS
4.1 Assessed Value
The assessed value of the three parcels composing Brook Farm is
$1,525,300. The various buildings on the property are not given an
assessed value in Assessing Department records; thus, the entire
value of the property is based on the land only. The property is
tax exempt by Code 11, owned by a religious house of worship.
4.2 Current Ownership and Status
The Lutheran Works of Mercy organization ceased operation of the
Martin Luther Orphans Home in 1974. Chapter 1225 of the Acts of
1973 has authorized and directed the Metropolitan District Commission
to acquire the property from its present owners; 30 acres of Gethsemane
Cemetery are specifically excluded from the acquisition authorization.
The MDC is currently negotiating with the owners for a purchase
price of the property.
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5.0 PLANNING CONTEXT
5.1 Background
The area known today as West Roxbury was in its early years part of
the Town of Roxbury, founded in 1630. At that time the district
was wooded and rocky, with marshes along the Charles River. The
flatlands were devoted primarily to farming. By the early 1800's,
the rudiments of West Roxbury Village had formed along Centre
Street near Spring Street.
As a result of a conflict between the rural and the more developed
parts of Roxbury, West Roxbury split off from Roxbury in 1851. The
rural Town of West Roxbury included areas known today as Jamaica
Plain, Roslindale, and West Roxbury.
In that same year of the new town's formation the seeds of its own
urbanization appeared with the opening of the Dedham Branch of the
railroad. The railroad brought West Roxbury within easy commuting
distance of Boston and small scale entrepreneurs began building
homes for the commuting middle classes in the vicinity of the rail
lines.
A second wave of home building occurred in the mid 80's and 90's
after West Roxbury was annexed to Boston, and a major building boom
occurred in the 1920's. The years immediately following World War
II brought construction to the Brook Farm - Sawmill area, bringing
the homes in this area to about three-fourths their present number.
Construction in the last two decades has concentrated in the most
southerly portions of the district.
West Roxbury is suburban in character. Unlike many other neighborhods
in Boston, most of the district consists of well maintained single
and two family homes. There are also a number of apartment complexes,
which range in size from small 16-18 unit buildings to large multi-
structure developments.
Population in West Roxbury increased 24% between 1960 and 1970 to
35,410. The median income for the area in 1975 was the highest in
the city, with the exception of the Back Bay - Beacon Hill area.
This median figure of $12,285 was $3,152 above the overall City
median. The area has the highest percentage of persons over 65 of
any district in Boston.
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5.2 Current Planning Issues
In a Fall, 1976 report entitled "West Roxbury, District Profile and
Proposed 1977-1979 Neighborhood Improvement Program", the Boston
Redevelopment Authority identified commercial area decline, the
negative impact of the existing Gardner Street Dump, public trans-
portation needs and the future of an 80 acre stone quarry site as
key planning issues in the district. One of these issues - the
Gardner Street Dump, directly relates to Brook Farm, as sanitary
landfill activities are clearly visible from the historic area and
the years of filling have created a steep sided hill adjacent to
part of the property.
The City has been discussing the closing of the Gardner Street Dump
for a number of years, but the Federally ordered closing of the
City incinerator has prolonged the use of this site which is the
only sanitary landfill area in the City. In addition to being a
visual blight, the Dump causes truck traffic which is disturbing to
local residents and hinders optimium recreational use of Charles
River frontage. The Boston Redevelopment Authority has recommended
that the phaseout of the dump be accelerated, that a study be made
of the reuse which could be made of the site, and that extensive
planting be carried out.
Planning issues directly related to Brook Farm and the proposed
Sawmill IVlarsh conservation area pertain to the type of recreational
uses and facilities to be accomodated and the access and support
facilities for Gethsamane Cemetery. The statute authorizing and
directing the Metropolitan District Commission to acquire the
Sawmill Brook valley and Brook Farm states that the purposes will
be for conservation, natural water storage of flood waters, historic
scenic and passive recreational purposes...." The M.D.C. has not
as yet developed a specific set of plans for the treatment of the
area to be acquired. However the intentions of the agency appear
to be to minimize physical changes to the property. No specific
active recreational facilities, such as tot lots or boat launches,
are presently contemplated. Specific uses for the remaining Brook
Farm buildings have not been identified, althoug the M.D.C. recognizes
the desirability of having the buildings occupied. Arrangements
with Gethsemane Cemetery concerning access and support facilities
have not been concluded.
5.3 Brook Farm is zoned S-.3, permitting only single-family residences
with allowable density (or floor-area ratio) of 3/10 of the total
land surface area. Brook Farm is nowhere near this allowable limit.
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6.0 ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES
In that Brook Farm lies outside the area of Boston in which only
Landmarks may be designated, the Boston Landmarks Commission may
choose to designate Brook Farm as either a Landmark, or as part of
Landmark District or Architectural Conservation District.
However, the activities that made Brook Farm significant took place
almost entirely on the one site (except for the beginning of the
school, which took place in a neighbor's cottage), and accordingly
the single Brook Farm site most clearly fits designation as a
Landmark.
In spite of the clear eligibility for designation, the Commission
may also choose not to designate the property.
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7.0 RECOMMENDATIONS
The staff of the Boston Landmarks Commission recommends that Brook
Farm be designated a Landmark under Chapter 772 of the Acts of
1975. The Commission should also investigate the possible designation
of a Protection Area to restrict size and scale of development in
neighboring areas.
Boundaries of the Landmark parcel should conform to the three
adjacent assessor's parcels numbered 8964, 8965 and 8966, Ward 20.
Recommended standards and criteria for administering the regulatory
functions in the statute are attached.
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STANDARDS & CRITERIA, BROOK FARM
A. General
1. As this landmark consists of a series of buildings and the
land on which they are sited, all changes will be viewed in
terms of their effect on the overall complex as well as on the
individual building or landscape element.
2. The intent should be to maintain Brook Farm's existing pastoral
landscape character.
3. No uses, permanent or temporary, should be allowed other than
passive recreation or such other uses as are historically
appropriate.
4. Introduction of unrelated park, recreational or support facil-
ities should be minimized.
5. Maintenance and replacement of existing elements should be
done in a manner to be consistent with the existing historic
and scenic landscape character.
6. No new elements should be permitted which would alter special
vistas or open spaces.
7. Existing elements which are visual intrusions should be removed,
if possible, or screened.
B. Buildings
1. Before any alterations are made to the present shop building
or the Margaret Fuller cottage, a preservation plan for each
building should be developed. Such plans should include
information from physical and documentary analysis pertaining
to the original appearance of the buildings and the changes
which have occurred to them over time. A decision should then
be made whether to preserve the existing buildings in their
present form or restore them to a prior appearance. Solid
philosophical grounds for the proposed preservation approach
should be presented prior to any concrete plan.
2. New uses for the buildings should be compatible with their
uses over time and should minimize alteration to the buildings
and their environment.
3. Foundations and other elements remaining from demolished
buildings or other structures should remain in place, stabilized
as necessary.
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4. Any new buildings or additions to existing buildings should be
compatible in scale, materials and general form with the
existing buildings and environment. In general, such buildings
and additions are discouraged.
C. Walks, Steps and Paved Areas
1. New areas of bituminous concrete should be avoided. Wherever
possible, pavement should be removed.
2. Paths and walkways should be surfaced unobtrusively. Natural
materials such as gravel or bark mulch are to be preferred to
bituminous concrete. Paths in the marsh area should be of
wood.
3. Steps and stairs should also be unobtrusive and informal in
character.
D. Signs and Markers
1. A simple and consistent signage system should be adopted for
interpreting natural and historic aspects fo the site.
2. Additional interpretive devices may be used at the locations
of buildings and building sites, and other key locations.
Such devices should, if possible, use natural materials and
should be in harmony with the pastoral character of the site.
However, innovative approaches to interpretation are encouraged.
E. Lighting and Other Fixtures
1. Consideration should be given to providing lighting through
fixtures at ground level or located in trees - so as to minimize
the effect during daylight hours.
2. Trash receptacles, if installed, should be simple, functional
and unobtrusive. Natural materials are to be preferred.
F. Natural Resources
1. The present variety of environments should be retained.
Management of the natural resources should reflect an under-
standing of the agricultural use of the property during the
Brook Farm experiment and the military purposes of Camp Andrew.
2. New additions or alterations to the landscape should not
disrupt the essential form and integrity of the property and
should be compatible with the scale, color, materials, and
character of the landscape.
3. No further landfill shall be permitted in any wetlands unless
the procedures in Chapter 131, Section 40 of the Massachusetts
General Laws (the Wetlands Protection Act) are followed.
(
4. Any change to already filled areas must include plantings to
aid in erosion control and improve appearance.
5. "Practical problems of erosion and drainage should be solved
with all possible regard for the health of the nearby trees,
and the visual effect on the pastoral character of the landscape.
6. in maintaining, removing and adding plant materials consideration
must be given to maintaining existing vistas, creating new
ones where appropriate, and maintaining defined areas of shade
and sun.
7. All plans should be cared for according to good horticultural
practices. Hazardous plants or portions of plants should be
removed promptly. Plans with diseases not practical to control
or cure should be removed promptly to prevent their infection
of others. Mutilated or distorted plants should also be
removed.
8. Plant replacements should be added on a schedule that will
assure a continuity in the landscape design.
9. Plant material replacements and/or new locations must be
properly evaluated as to form, color, texture, arrangement,
allowance for adequate space for light and good growth, and
conformance to the existing landscape.
10. Alteration of or new landforms will only be considered If they
will not alter the basic landscape character.
11. All natural rock outcrops shil be preserved.
r
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Boston Conservation Commission: "The Sawmill Marsh, a natural and cultural
resource study." Boston, 1975.
The Boston 200 Corporation: West Roxbury, Boston 200 Neighborhood
History Series. Boston, The Nimrod Press, 1976.
Codman, John Thomas: Brook Farm Historic and Personal Memoirs, Boston,
Arena Publishing Company, 1894. (Repr. AMS Press, New York 1971)
Fogarty, Robert S.: American Utopianism. Itasic, E. E. Peacock, 1972.
Hinds, William Alfred: American Communities. Oneida, N.Y. Office of
the American Socialist, 1878 (Repr. Cornith Books, Gloucester, 1961)
Holloway, IVIark: Heavens on Earth-Utopian Communities in America
1680-1860. New York, Dover Publications, 1966.
Lutheran Works of Mercy: "A Century of Ministry and Mercy at Brook Farm
1871-1971". Boston, 1971.
Orvis, Marianne Dwight: Letters from Brook Farm 1844-1847. edited by
Amy L. Reed, Philadelphia, Porcupine Press, 1972.
Registry of Deeds, Norfolk County, County Courthouse, Dedham, Mass.
Registry of Deeds, Suffolk County, County Courthouse, Boston, Mass.
West Roxbury Historical Society: "Brook Farm-A Utopian Community" (pamphlet)
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